Many people require the use of a bathroom mirror after they have showered. Examples of the uses to which such mirrors have been placed include shaving, coming hair, putting on makeup and the like. However, such mirrors almost always become fog-covered, and simply wiping the mirror does not prevent water from continuing to condense on the mirror, thereby inhibiting, if not completely preventing, use of the mirror.
Accordingly, the art has included several antifogging designs that are intended to eliminate the formation of condensation on a bathroom mirror. These design proposals generally include a fan unit that is attached to the mirror to blow hot air across the mirror. The fan unit can be a hand-held hair dryer type device.
However, these proposals have been constructed in a manner whereby the unattractive appearance, unconventional design and loudness of the working units rendered them impractical for the common market and thus inhibit their commercial acceptance.
Many of these proposals are designed mostly for addition to an existing mirror, and are thus insufficient as installation is complicated, costly and, at times, due to the design of certain units, electrical cords are left dangling over the viewing surface of the mirror. Such exposed electrical cords in a bathroom may be undesirable.
Additionally, the air exhausted from these units is directed in a manner that does not adequately cover the entire surface of the mirror, or at least that portion of the surface that is most likely to be fog covered. Still further, these prior devices do not always have the ability to match the needs of a particular condition, and may leave most of a mirror surface fogged, or at least that portion of the mirror surface which is most needed.
Still further, these devices are not completely efficient in operation and thus either move too much air across the mirror or too little according to the requirements of the particular conditions existing in the bathroom when someone seeks to use the mirror. Furthermore, many of these prior devices do not have the capability of directing heated air only to those area of the mirror which ar most likely to require defogging, and thus are often wasteful of energy.
Therefore, there is a need for a bathroom mirror that has anti-fogging capabilities which are efficient and which can be adjusted to meet the precise requirements of the conditions existing in the room at the time the mirror is being used whereby the exact amount of heated air which is heated to the precise temperature necessary is used on the exact locations most effective in removing and preventing fog buildup on that mirror.